Casket lock structure



July 28, 1970- n. A. MORAND CASKET LOCK STRUCTURE Filed Oct. 10. 1968 llh.

iN'x-"tiNTOR.

DONALD A. MORAND BY WWW;

ATTO RNE Y5 United States Patent M 3,521,920 CASKET LOCK STRUCTURE Donald A. Morand, Danville, Ill., assignor to Estad Products, Inc., Danville, Ill., a corporation of Oregon Filed Oct. 10, 1968, Ser. No. 766,479 Int. Cl. E05c 9/04, 9/12 US. Cl. 29239 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Disclosed is a burial casket lid locking mechanism which is operated from a single, central point along the length of the casket, rotation of the single operator serving to draw two, spaced, inclined cam surfaces toward each other and thereby drawn down and lock the casket lid without any tendency to laterally shift or displace the lid during its final closing movement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to latching devices for burial caskets providing a releasable fastening between either the head or foot caps of a casket and the casket body. Various types of burial casket latching mechanisms are presently utilized, however, many of these are subject to various structural and functional disadvantages. One functional defect characteristic of prior art latching mechanisms is the lateral or sideward movement of the latch hooks as the hinged head or foot cap is latched closed. This lateral movement of the latch hooks as latching takes place tends to shift the head or foot cap sidewardly somewhat jamming the caps together. Subsequent opening and closing of the head cap, for example, can result in damage to either or both caps. Morand US. Pat. 3,342,516 illustrates one form of mechanism for meeting this difficulty.

The present invention provides a further mechanism which solves the problem referred to above but does so by means of a simplified camming mechanism which can be economically manufactured, permits actuation at a single central point, and which cannot be jammed by improper closing of the lid on the casket body.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The concept of the present invention provides a casket locking structure having no hooks or abutments extending upwardly from the casket body at the cap parting line and which utilizes a simple, opposed cam motion to provide the necessary draw down of the casket lid, and having means for preventing damage or jamming of the locking mechanism should the casket lid be closed improperly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side sectional view illustrating a portion of the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view, with portions broken away, showing a further portion of the structure 7 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring initially to FIG. 5, the latching mechanism, indicated generally at 10, of the present invention is cus- 3,521,920 Patented July 28, 1970 tomarily installed at the margin of the casket body 11 with the cooperating latch members 12 positioned in the opposite marginal edge of the removal casket head cap 13 and foot cap 1 4. The head cap and foot cap of the casket have the conventional separation lines 16, permitting the head cap to be opened without opening the foot cap and each may have one of the latching mechanisms installed in it as shown in FIG. 5.

Referring now to FIGS. 1-3, the structural details of the latching mechanism of the present invention will be described. The mechanism includes two, spaced stationary latching plates 21 and 22 which are disposed beneath the top flange of the casket body 11, the overlying flange being indicated at 23 in FIG. 1 and shown only fragmentarily there. As may best be seen in FIG. 2 (where latching plate 22 is shown, it being understood that latching plate 21 is a duplicate thereof) the latching plates are elongated and extend along the margin of the casket body just beneath the overlying casket body flange 23.

The latching plates 22 and 21 are each provided with a slot made up of an enlarged aperture portion 26a and an elongated aperture portion 26b. The stationary top flange of the casket body, indicated at 23 in FIG. 2, is provided with an aperture 23a which corresponds in size with and registers with the aperture 26a in the underlying latching plate 22.

The matching latching plate 21 (FIG. 1) is provided with an identical slot having an enlarged aperture portion 27a and an elongated aperture portion 27b. It will be noted that the enlarged aperture portions 26a and 27a are arranged so that the extending aperture portions 26b and 27b extend axially away from each other.

The latching plates are supported from the top flange of the casket body 23 by means of spacers 31 (FIG. 1) which underlie the latching plates and are supported by the bolts 32, a compression spring 33 serving to urge the latching plate against the under face of the casket body flange 23. The mounting of the latching plates is thus such that the latching plates may move by sliding against the underface of the casket body flange 23 but are resiliently urged against the flange with the elongated slots 34 (FIG. 2) in each of the latching plates accommodating the bolts 32 and permitting the latching plates to move relative to the bolts. Adjacent the latching plate slots, that is, along the elongated portions 26b and 27b of the slots, the latching plates are formed by being dished downwardly to provide the inclined cam surface 36 on the latching plate 21 and the inclined cam surface 37 (FIG. 2) adjacent the elongated slot portion 26b. The generally T-shaped slots in the latching plates 21 and 22 thus have their enlarged aperture portion generally in the major plane of the respective latching plate and the elongated aperture portion of each of the slots is inclined downwardly out of the plane of the respective latching plate, the inclined cam surfaces 36 (FIG. 1) and 37 (FIG. 2) thus forming an acute angle with the plane of the latching plates along the length of the slots.

The slots 26b and 27b are adapted to receive stationary latch members 12 which, as may best be seen in FIG. 3, include a shank portion 12b and a transverse head portion 12a. The latch members are carried by the casket caps 13 and 14 as indicated in FIG. 5 and are accommodated through the registering apertures in the flange of the casket body 23 and the enlarged aperture portion 26a and 27a in the latching plates. The shank portion 12b is sized so as to be accommodated freely within the elongated aperture portion 26b and 27b in the latching plates. As may best be seen in FIG. 1, the latch members 12 are fastened by means of nuts 15 to the edge flange 20 of the casket cap, the shanks of the latch members extending through the resilient gasket '41 overlying the casket body flange 23. The latch members further extend through the apertures 23a in the casket body flange and through the slots in the respective latching plates 21 and 22. The transverse portion 12a of the latch members engages the inclined surfaces 36 and 37.

The means for moving or sliding the two latching plates toward and away from each other to thereby draw down the casket lid by means of engagement of the latch members 12 with their respective inclined cam surfaces will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. As may best be seen in FIG. 2, the latching plates, plate 21 being shown in FIG. 2', are formed as indicated at 51 to provide two downwardly extending flanges 52 which receive the extending end 53 of a rack member 54. The rack 54 is fixed to the latching plate 22 by means of rivets 56. As will be evident from FIG. 1, the latching plate 21, by means of rivets 61, is secured to the end portion 62 of a rack 64 which is identical to the rack 54. A channel shaped bracket 66, secured by means of rivets or screws 67 to the casket body flange 23 serves to support the racks 54 and 64 but permits them to slide longitudinally within the bracket 66.

The rack 64 is provided with teeth 71 and the rack 54 is provided with teeth 72 both of which mesh with the pinion gear 73. As may be seen in FIG. 2, the pinion gear 73 is mounted on a sidewardly extending shaft 74 which is counter bored as indicated at 76 to accommodate a crank handle (not shown) permitting manual rotation of the pinion gear.

In operation, the locking structure is shown in latched or locked condition, that is, with the latch members 12, and consequently the casket lid or cap 13 drawn down tightly against the casket body. The latch members may be released by inserting a crank in the portion 74 (FIG. 2) extending from the pinion gear 73 and rotating the gear counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 1. Rotation of the pinion counterclockwise serves to move the rack 54 left-wardly and the rack 64 rightwardly as viewed in FIG. 1. The inclined surfaces 36 and 37 thus move across the transverse portion 12a of the respective latching members, permitting the upper portions of the casket to loosen from the casket body and when the apertures 26a and 27a register with their respective latch members 12, the latch members may be raised through the apertures 26a and 27a and the cap separated from the casket body. To reclose the cap against the casket body, the latch members are brought down through the apertures 26a and 27a and the pinion 73 is rotated clockwise thus drawing the racks 64 and 54 toward their position of FIG. 1 and drawing the latch members 12 down over the inclined cam surface 36 into their locked position of FIG. 1. Should the casket cap be closed or dropped shut when the apertures 26a and 27a are somewhat out of register with the apertures in the overlying, stationary casket body flange 23, the transverse portion 12a of the latch members will strike the underlying latching plates 21 and 22, however, the shock of this engagement will be taken up by compression of the springs 33 and the underlying latching plates will not be deformed or damaged. Thus, even though the pinion 73 is inadvertently left in an intermediate position, forceable closing of the cap will not damage or distort the latching mechanism.

While the structure described utilizes generally T-shaped latching members 12, it will be understood that the advantages of the structure might also be obtained by utilizing generally round headed latching members such as shown at 81 in FIG. 4. In using this type of latching member the head 81a requires that the apertures in the latching plates, corresponding to apertures 26a and 27a of FIGS. 1 and 2, be circular rather than oval as shown in the previously described structure.

It will be noted that in moving the latching members 12 to locked position, the motion of the latching plates 21 and 22 is such that the plates are drawn toward each other, the forces being thus balanced and resulting in no tendency of the cap structure to shift longitudinally with respect to the casket body as the draw down of the upper structure occurs. The amount of draw down of the locking structure may be adjusted by adjusting the efiective length of the latching members 12 or by forming the latching plates 21 and 22 so that the depth of the inclined surfaces engaging the latching members is greater or less than that shown.

I claim:

1. A casket latching mechanism for releasably retaining a casket cap is closed position wit-h relation to a casket body including two spaced stationary latch members each having a shank and a retaining head, said members extending from said cap at its parting line with the casket body, an elongated latching plate movably mounted on the casket body opposite each of said spaced latch members, said plates being disposed in end-to-end relation, said latching plates each having a slot therein providing an enlarged aperture portion registering with and accommodating the head of the adjacent latch member and an elongated aperture portion extending from the enlarged aperture toward the other latching plate, said elongated aperture portion being sized to receive the shank of the adjacent latch member, an inclined cam surface formed on the underface of each latching plates and extending adjacent the latching plate slot and forming an acute angle with the plane of the plate along the length of the slot, the cam surface being adapted to engage the head of the adjacent latch member, and means accessible from the casket body for simultaneously moving said latching plates axially toward and away from each other to thereby lock closed or release the cap with relation to the casket body.

2. A casket latching mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which said latching plates are resiliently mounted on the casket body to absorb the shock of said latch members striking said plates should the casket cap be closed against the casket body when said latch member heads are out of register with said enlarged aperture portions of the plate slots.

3. A casket latching mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which said means for moving the latching plates comprises a rack carried by each of said latching plates at the adjacent ends thereof, said racks being disposed in generally side-by-side positional relation between the adjacent plate ends, and a pinion gear member meshing with said racks and having a portion accessible at the exterior of the casket body for rotating said pinion gear member and thereby moving said racks.

4. A casket latching mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which said stationary latch members take the form of T-shaped studs with the said heads of the latch members formed by the transverse portion of the T.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,582,841 1/1952 McEwan 27-17 2,830,355 4/ 1958 Christian 2717 2,889,609 6/1959 Eisenhard et a1. 2717 3,403,432 10/1968 Bencene 2717 MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner R. L. WOLFE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 27-17 

